Monday marks Tim Keller's first full day as Albuquerque mayor

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- It's a big day for the City of Albuquerque. The man who residents elected to serve as mayor had his first full day leading the city.

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Mayor Tim Keller said Monday will be a day full of procedural formalities.

"We are going to City Council to get our executive appointees hopefully confirmed," he said. "That's just some mechanics that we have to do in the mayor's office. Then we've also got a lot of positions to evaluate and a lot of positions to fill."

From his home in west downtown, Keller is within walking distance to his new office at City Hall. Besides the confirmations of appointees, he must tackle the city's pressing problems. For instance, crime. The number of homicides in the city has reached a record high of 72. The previous record was 70 homicides in 1996.

"It's going to take attacking crime from all sides. I'm lucky we've got three new chiefs who are going to be sworn in Tuesday and we're going to get together with them and come up with a plan to actually deal with that issue," he said. "But I know it's got to include addressing some of the root cause problems with opioid addiction and also we have to have more officers on the street and we've got to finish the Department of Justice reforms and take back our police department."

Keller also has other long-term plans in the works when it comes to attracting business to the Duke City.

"We're going to review several key departments and thoroughly understand how we can restructure them, re-staff them," he said. "That includes economic development, family services and planning."

As for walking to work, will it be a daily thing? Most likely not, but Keller said he might do it a couple times a week to highlight how walkable the city can be.

Keller's replacement as state auditor, Wayne Johnson, took his oath of office Monday afternoon. A Bernalillo County commissioner and business owner, Johnson will serve the remainder of Keller's term next November.

Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Johnson to the state auditor's post last week.

"I thank Governor Martinez for her faith in me and the opportunity to make our state a better place," he said. "Making sure we are holding necessary agencies and people accountable is critical to maintaining public trust. I look forward to serving the people of New Mexico."